Publisher's Summary

When anyone can start a business (when everyone is running their career like a business), it begs a question. This is your one chance at life, you can have anything you want, what is worth doing?

Most people don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own.

They spend decades in pursuit of something that someone convinced them they should want, without realizing that it won't make them happy.

Anything You Want is a manifesto about living life, appreciating enough, and doing what matters. It's most of what fabled entrepreneur Derek Sivers learned in ten years of starting and growing a small business, compacted into something you can listen to in an hour and a half. A life worth living starts with knowing your personal philosophy of what makes you happy and what's worth doing.

Authentic, straight shooting look at one guys success story. He makes a point of prefacing his life and business experience with "here's what worked for me". The message I pulled from the book is, there probably is no magic bullet that if followed will make you successful. It's probably a good idea NOT to search for someone else's success and duplicate it, but rather create your own story keeping in mind that it is about your passion and desire to create something....not built around the desire to be wealthy. That part will come, after you follow your dream. His candid look at how he failed as well as how he succeeded made the story realistic and believable. I enjoyed his narration and didn't stop listening until the end.

Derek has a real knack for storytelling and a unique perspective. I've always enjoyed his blog, but spending an hour and a half with his writing gave me a much better feel for his approach and mojo and vibe. I really enjoyed it, particularly having it also be in his voice.

I particularly liked his take on trust. I've spent a lot of time thinking through issues like he bring up with his employees, although mostly I think about co-founders. But it's a similar thing. I really want to trust people as much as I can, I think it's empowering and leads to a great vibe. But you do also have to look out for yourself, because there are people out there who will just burn you.

I loved this book and how it was presented. There was some great information and Derek makes it very clear how things worked or didn't. His honest approach but also entertaining approach made me want to read it again. This is one of those authors who I would follow and by every book he comes out with. I put him up in the SETH GODIN level and think he has alot to offer. Again, a fantastic read, very clear and easy to listen to. And I had a great laugh as well. He's pretty funny.

This is the best guide to being an entrepreneur that I've ever read. Loaded with great tales of mistakes made and always in the context of the over-riding vision of serving the customer.... and remembering that you are doing whatever in order to be happy. Great, short book.

Derek is an interesting guy, have always been a fan of his blogs etc. He writes some excellent stuff about the music industry, probably some of the best stuff around.

This book is a collection of different articles and blog postings with some hilarious moments and great story telling.

If you're a young but creative business person, I say yay, but nay if you're more creative than business, because this book is aimed towards new, radical, original type business minded people.

He breaks down what business is:

For an idea to be good it has to be useful.

And this book is pretty useful, so yes, I recommend it to anyone associated with business particularly the programming, new internet based businesses, music industry types and record label people.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Paul

South Shields, United Kingdom

11/3/11

Overall

"Enjoyable from start to finish"

I've listened to numerous business audiobooks and rate this as one of my favourites. Derek really spills the beans on his entrepreneurial experiences, his business ideals and ethics are missing in many modern companies and what a shame that is.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

Steve K

1/10/12

Overall

"Worth a listen"

Too many people give out 4 and 5 star ratings for my liking. For me 5 stars has got to be mind blowing and / or life changing (Zig Ziglar and Anthony Robbins fall into this category for me).

The author of this book seems sincere and doesn't promise to change your life just share his story of his success, and in fairness that what this book does. This is just a book about his success and the principles that worked for him and may not be applicable to your businesss.

As I said in the title worth a listen

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Colin

WATFORD, United Kingdom

10/28/11

Overall

"An excellent, informative and enjoyable listen"

This is possibly one of the best audiobooks I've heard. The author narrates in an engaging, light manner and openly explains how his business grew to be worth millions in spite of the fact that he didn't want it to.

His points on decision-making and changing tack are very well made, and his ongoing experience with staff and suppliers fresh and entertaining. I must've listened to this book 3-4 times back-to-back, it is just that good.

For me a huge plus was discovering the web site the book is based upon, and after only 1 week I've already sold my first music CD in the USA!

Highly recommended.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

greg

BELFAST, United Kingdom

6/4/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"listened to it three times already"

I've listened to some great books on audible so far, but I think this one was the most engaging for me.It's an open and frank discussion of the highs and lows of online business. But also a story of starting small and learning on the Job.Despite his eccentric business practices and lack of formal business training he made a great success with cdbaby,eventually selling for 22 million I think.A very entertaining and useful listen, really enjoyed it.Enough to listen to it three times in a row.:)

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Christophe

Harelbeke, Belgium

1/13/13

Overall

"On top of my playlist"

This audiobook is pure enjoyment for 1,5 hours. I listened to it at least 10 times and I'm still not tired of it, I even bought the printed book after knowing the audio-version by heart !

It's a fantastic story, and Derek does a great job telling it like he does. I love the humor in this book, but no mistake : the information in "Anything you want" is very valuable.

I recommend this book to everyone !

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Nikhil Vijayan

London

1/23/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Listen to this if you're a maker or entrepreneur"

Really like Derek's take on things. As an introvert, I relate to his point of view as a maker and musician.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Cristina Schek

7/25/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Hard not to love!!"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Most certainly! Because the book starts with: “This is most of what I learned in ten years, compacted into something you can read in an hour” - and delivers it! I learned more from this hour than from anything else so far.

What did you like best about this story?

Reading this book makes you feel good because it’s not really about anything you want: it’s about anything you CHOOSE to do and MAKE in the world for others: a far more powerful goal than merely doing things for yourself. This is actually a book about 'life', but the reading experience itself feels v. concrete.

Which scene did you most enjoy?

“But ‘revolution’ is a term that people use only when you’re successful. Before that, you’re just a quirky person who does things differently.”

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes!

Any additional comments?

I keep re-listening & each time reveals new facets, like a new friend who's a great teacher. That's what I want from a book.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Bernice

United Kingdom

9/26/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Short but could be Sweeter!"

This book was less than two hours and promised 40 lessons for the new entrepreneur. I was not counting and there might have been. However, the lessons were sometimes a little basic. I thought these lessons could have been more profound.

The audio book was well narrated by the author and the book is basically about his success. The narration was good, I was a little disappointed that Mr Sivers did not appear to consider women for his business in the early days.

Overall, short but could be a lot sweeter.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Imran

8/16/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Really enjoyed this book."

Concise and entertaining lessons learned from a business owner whose methods are often counterintuitive. Will definitely be listening to this more than once.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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